Recently, I have received
a mail from a kind surfer who asked me why did I titled this PIM site as "Photography
in Malaysia"
? Instead, he advised me to adopt a more "universal name". That was thoughtful
and considerate enough, but...

Why
Not ?

During the early days when
me & my two ex-key partners, Andrew Wong & Yeak SN drew up the basic structure
for our site, we were struggling for a while to assign an appropriate name as the
dormain. Actually, it took a lot of courage to adopt the name, Malaysian Internet Resources (or "MIR "
for short, which incidentally, coincides with the Russian Space Station - although
that was not intentionally, but has resulted with a huge log file that many earlier
batch of visitors from US military section to pay us "regular visits").
Adopting MIR as our trade name on the Web means taking on a BIG responsibilities
to ensure that the content / resources within conforms to the standard and ideals
of "Malaysian Internet Resources".

By the way, Mr. Leo Bodnar, from Moscow has
mail and explained to me what 'MIR' means in Russian. I thought I should share it
with some of you. <
CLICK
HERE !>
Don't worry, although
our two initial partners have left us in pursuing dreams on their own, while the
MIR Space Centre has grounded back to Earth as ashes and cruising through rough H2o
of the Internet dashed business illusion - we are still around. ALL of us at MIR-Malaysia,
with a renewed working culture and a more focused business attitude is steering us
to move on to achieve our ideal business objectives in the near future - and
we have NEVER doubted our own capabilities as a GLOBAL Malaysian !

First, why photography
? Again, why not ? Just like some people prefer golf, fashion, mountain tracking
etc., it happened photography was my first love. From the days when I was struggled
to understand the fundamentals in using a simple camera to a stage when I spent more
time thinking rather than tripping the shutter release button, the wasteful days
during the learning curves has benefited me quite in terms of personal experience
dealing with camera and photography. Naturally, it leads to how I started to write
something that related to this interest of mine. I thought I can also contribute
something to the site that I have a business interest in. At the same time, it is
a medium I hope to express the thoughts and experiences in my own photographic journey,
and patching some missing resources that were missed in the network during the early
grooming days of Internet... Well, after all, to strike a good balance between profitability
and content building in the web business is not an easy task, since money is not
my personal priority, the best compromise is to maintain a site that is free of commercial
essence so as to retain neutrality in expressing my own interpretation in photography,
in a RAW oriental form.

When it comes to a universal
topic like Photography (note: this is not an proprietary
hobby), positioning
MIR as a localized resource with Malaysian flavors on the border-less Internet may
risk it being relegated to a secondary site. Therein lies the challenges and in the
process making our lives tougher...but
what the heck, its more fun this way,
to built a Malaysian photography site with a worldwide appeal, promoting the
very best of local photography expertise, personalities, works and technology. Why
don't we set our own high standards instead of following on others tails ? This is
what we set out to do, being a simple Malaysian and believing in myself and the length
and breadth of talents available here. At the same time, developing local content
will also create more local Internet awareness. A key element in fast tracking our
progress as an IT-enabled Nation is to built up local Internet awareness, applications
& purposeful usage of the medium.

Photography is a progressive
discipline that allows, encourages and embraces many diverse styles. Asian styles
/ technique in general and Malaysian in particular are unique. This is why the medium
is so exciting. The images capture a process, which translates into individual expression
of creativity that is sensitive to time, culture, personal experiences and outlook.
Without duplicating similar resources that have been ported on the Net. There are
plenty of missing slots in the network has to be filled, within the best of my knowledge,
what I was trying to do is also meant for for those who has missed the various generations
in the development, up & down and the various cycle of changes happened within
the photographic industry during the last half a century. For an example, photographers
with the age group around the 20-40 can even find difficulties in trying to mount
a lens onto a vintage SLR camera such as Nikkormat
FT. joke ? No.
I have seen this happened ...

Regrets ? There
are some... The ever
struggling skill set
in BOTH of my Content writing & typewriting - primarily because I was Chinese
educated but I am trying to improve these weak areas all the time (This is STRICTLY APPLY to my photography
section ONLY - various web construction
works for MIR's clients are handled by our Creative Writers, Project executives and/or
Content Staffs). Next,
visitors to this photography site comprised of only 8% from locals (This includes
Singapore, while the rest are from around the world with visitors from the US making
up 45% of the traffic). I understand Photography is a very specific subject, but
I do hope there are more contributions from locals to help me improve its content.
Further, I am quite labels independent, so, as much as I am trying to maintain a
neutral stand but I do need others opinion to neutralize any possible effect that
may influence a buy/sell decision. Generally, local photographers are very "defensive"
when it comes to critique of works, but as long as this site is classified gray area
for profitability, I do hope the good intention can be well received by all, as there
are no commercial obligation to anyone. All
I wish is that this photo site can inspire my fellow countrymen on what can be achieved
with a global medium. I think self confidence is an essential element when you are
at the playing field of global trade or simply as a raw form in communications. Has
this site works as a good web model. Hope so...Note:all portfolios hosted inMIRare sponsored by us, as long as you
are confident like I do to have your work posted in this site, just talk to us, you
won't know how it will turn out in your chance.

Lastly, there
is nothing to shout about what I have done thus far with PIM except it has made MIR
ranks as the most popular Malaysian web design
company
when relates to web traffic, so, just treat this photography site as my personal
contribution to the Network, thank you for reading.Oh
-o.. wait.. there
is one more thing:- other than the "fun" side of MIR, I have to think of
ways feed the many stomach & mouths in the Company too, huh ? MIR are a web developer
in nature. we offers various services just like any other Internet companies do,
like consult clients on HOW
to create web sites that excite,
web presence strategies blah blah blah ..etc. . IF I don't handle some marketing
for our Company here, my marketing staffs will kill me alive, haha .. Try visiting
some tasteful web projects listed below & see if you agree with me that is our
team is REAL good in this trade (as the first round of mad rush to port home pages
to the web is over, the next wave is the logical thinking on qualitative aspect,
do you actually have a good website to help your business ?):-

If you are doubtful with MIR
capabilities and do you need some BIG business trade names to convince you ? here
are some corporate icons that we have been served, successfully delivered our solutions.How I wish they are still with us... in helping us to be STRONGER. But I guess
that is sad part of business life...

Whatever
it is, if some of you (or your business) who has not had a website yet or toying
with the idea of a REVAMP for the existing site - do consider give MIR a try to see
what can we deliver. AFTER ALL, instead of benefit someone else with your allocated
budget for this sort of electronic media exposure, you might as well benefit us,
right ? hehe ....

So, TALK to usvia MIRnet/Contact or MIR/ContactAfter all, you have nothing to lose
for having an alternative for consideration and/or evaluation. Hey, do excuse me
if I am talking business here as this is the first time I am trying to sell "something"
in his site, okay ?

Note: MIRNET is our Company that caters to service
SMI/SME-size Companies or individual/ those who do not has a high working budget
to create an initial Internet presence:-
http://www.MIRnet.com.myAs for
international clients, we have another two joint-ventured Companies in Shanghai,
China and East Malaysia (Borneo Island). Hey, we can create
multi-languages sites to assist you to penetrate markets out of your political boundaries
- something you might never
thought of huh ?

Don't I look like
a bloody cheap salesman now ? *$@#$@^&#!!Don't curse. at times,
I do show the ugly side in me....

Essential
Site data: Though
the site is still falls short of what I envisioned it to be, but it was just a six
months effort
* and to make
it truly a first rated site is still a long way to go (My personal interpretation
is not based on a million or two hits a month, but rather to generate same-feeling
and passion towards photography and to stimulate resonance and constructive resources
to make the site self-grow & expanding - The framework in the PIM site has
the path for growth - only if it has some other solid contributions). Nevertheless, I've made quite a
number of friends along the way and it is slowly building up its momentum in popularity.
To use hits and page access as a yardstick, it is growing in a very healthy pace
(it is
EXCEEDING 10 million monthly hits mark of web traffic**) and never short of visitors with
great enthusiasm.

*
This article
was original written in 1998.
From the original Nikon, Hasselblad and Rollei history sites, the classic SLR camera
profiles, one of the most visited area in PIM has now extended to cover various selective
camera models from the Japan BIG five manufacturers: Canon, Minolta, Pentax and Olympus. ** 2 million
hits per month was registered randomly a month in 1998; soared passed 8 million
hits on the month of February, 2002 and maintaining 12-13 million hits per month now (2003-2004)
- nothing to shout about - as compare to Google's 19 million hits of daily web
traffic Anyway, this site does not contain a killer applications within nor any
juicy news or events. haha . ENJOY.